Over the Edge
by FoxSpirit
Summary: She was just another innocent casualty right? That's what everyone believed to be true in the beginning, but while Hiei's mourning her loss the boys are finding out there may be more behind this murder then they first thought. Ch2 up
1. Mistakes

*Do I really need to let everyone know again that I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho?*  
  
_Underscores mean italics_  
  
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Chapter One: Mistakes  
  
"_You bastard!!_" Hiei disappeared in a flash of black and reappeared, landing from an overwhelmingly powerful kick. Right to Kuwabara's stomach. The carrot top was sent flying across the huge warehouse into the wall nearly thirty feet away. Hiei's white headband had long ago been reduced to ashes by his Jagan's violent outbursts reflecting his own heart's rage. "HOW COULD YOU!?!?"  
  
"I didn't chose to let this happen shrimp! Do you think I would have willingly let her die!?" Kuwabara choked through his own tears. He picked himself off the hard, grey cement floor of the building and started to walk back to the unruly fire youkai. Everyone was there, all avoiding the eyes of the two fighters. Yusuke, Kurama, Botan, even Koenma. They had all witnessed the tragedy. And there was a silent agreement between everyone present that Hiei and Kuwabara had to work this out in the their own terms until things got out of control.  
  
"You were the one who was supposed to be protecting her!" Hiei screamed. Kurama lifted his head to look at Hiei. In all his years with the demon he had never once seen the Jagan eye glow so violently. Though in all his years, he had never seen Hiei lose his grip on everything so rashly. Kuwabara was sent flying by another of Hiei's attack, this time a flaming black wave of his energy.  
  
"I had my hands full! I thought she would be fine!" Kuwabara argued with Hiei, "I never would have taken my eyes off her if I thought they'd go after her!" Botan clenched her teeth, and buried her head in Koenma's shirt. He could feel her warm tears seep through the thin material and put his arm around her.  
  
"THAT'S NOT AN EXCUSE!" Hiei raged again. He had no sense of right, wrong, morals, life, or death. Everything was the same emotion to him. An overwhelming anger and sorrow. "How could you let her DIE?!" Kuwabara was walking back to the living time bomb that Hiei had become, spirit sword in hand. Botan's sobs rang faintly in his head when he pasted her. She fell to her knees, her sky blue hair hiding her raining eyes. The ground was speckled with her salty tears. Koenma was by her side, behind Kurama, trying to comfort her futilely. She dragged her head up to watch her friend be beaten to a pulp.  
  
"I already told you I couldn't stop it!" Kuwabara ran at Hiei and swung his glimmering sword down with all his might. The attack failed to come within even a foot of Hiei, out done the yokai's speed again. Just the opposite of Hiei had occurred with Kuwabara, his power being substantially diminished. He wasted no time in countering Kuwabara, assaulting him with another wave of black flames. Kuwabara's already battered body smashed into a pile of old wooden crates, sending splinter and dust flying all around. Despite all the abuse he had been put through, emotionally and physically, he stumbled to his feet and unsteadily pace towards Hiei. Kurama was still focused on Hiei, watching for a sign to intervene. Hiei's reiki was insanely erratic, spiking and falling unpredictably. Kurama let five seeds fall to the ground silently, preparing for the inevitable moment when the bought would have to stopped. Kuwabara, however, was oblivious to Hiei's raging energy and kept walking to him.  
  
Then stopped frozen.  
  
The bandage around Hiei's right arm were burning in ebony and violet flames. Tattered shreds feel to the ground revealing the deadly black dragon embedded to his arm. The dragon's eyes appeared to hold a spark of restless and vengeful life. Hiei didn't seem to realize the dragon was rousing, blinded by his anger. Even Kuwabara knew it was coming. Hiei possessed the immense power to annihilate the entire site and then some. And he was preparing to unleash it.  
  
"That's enough Hiei," Kurama warned firmly. His hand was flowing a dim red, and the seeds had disappeared into the soft ground. He understood Hiei's devastation, but he wouldn't let him destroy everyone because of it.  
  
"Stay out of this Kurama!" Hiei shouted to the silver fox. The black dragon around his arm was awakening slowly, feeding on the demon's energy. Kurama closed his emerald eyes regretfully and let loose his plants. Vines erupted out of the ground around Hiei and swiftly coiled around his body tightly. The fox's left hand lost it's faint aura, replaced with a strong and brightly shining one. Hiei struggled to escape the vine prison, but his lack of ration and the great amount of additional reiki Kurama was focusing in the strength of his plants held him fast. "Dammit Kurama, LET ME GO!!" The thief ignored the command and waited for the blinded fire youkai to release some of his flare.  
  
~~~~~~Just earlier~~~~~~~  
  
"Koenma why the hell are you here? That's one more person for us to have to try to protect!" Yusuke complained when he was informed the child ruler would be joining them on their next case to the Makai. The tantei had recently been told about a demon who had taken a liking to stealing ningen (a/n: human) children's souls while they slept peacefully. Without a soul the bodies of the unfortunate children died within hours of being visited by the new "grim reaper."  
  
"Because I have to witness first hand the newest threat to the ningenkai," the child ruler explained, "There have been several reports of children's deaths due to missing souls, far too many for one lone demon to steal at a time. I believe there is a band of them working together, and it's my job to know how they work. Thus I am following you to see this one's vulnerabilities."  
  
"Can't you watch from your tv or whatever you always spy on us with?" Yusuke asked.  
  
"No."  
  
"Stupid pain in the ass..." Yusuke mumbled under his breath.  
  
"I heard that," Koenma said.  
  
"Whoop de freakin do."  
  
The group walked into sight of the large warehouse Koenma's intelligence reports stated the demons had last been known to stay in. "Kuwabara, your going to watch out for Yukina, correct?" Kurama asked concerned. He was nervous about bringing the sweet ice apparition with them, even though her healing powers would be an asset.  
  
"Yeah, not a problem for the great man Kuwabara! I promise to protect you, Yukina!" he tried to impress the shy girl.  
  
"Yukina, stay near the door so if things turn bad you can escape easily," Kurama advised, just in case.  
  
"I will," she assure the fox as Yusuke walked up to the rickety door.  
  
"Hey Koenma, maybe we'd be a little more intimidating if you weren't a baby," he mocked.  
  
"Watch what you say Urameshi," Koenma replied, though agreeing with him in his head. He took on his teenage form in a smokey second, and nodded for the teen to push open the door. Or rather kick it open. The building they walked into looked even shabbier then it had from the outside. There were two windows near the ceiling on either side, letting in little light. There was one candle lit near the far side of the room, revealing one lone demon.  
  
"Jeeze just one jerk? Where are the rest you said would be here, Koenma?"  
  
"Genkai's right, you truly are a dimwit. Do you think all of them would be in the same place?"  
  
"Unfortunately, majority of my students are seeking refuge here from your other grunts squirt," the demon interrupted, standing up, "but I am relieved that you brought so few tantei. Are you running short lately? I am confident my students will be able to dispose of you all in short time."  
  
"Are you hallucinating? There's no one here!" Yusuke commented. The youkai's eyes glinted, setting more candles a fire like dominoes. They formed three rows along the roof, going straight across in perfect lines. The new light exposed more demons, sitting in small, perfected rows. Either precession held only ten demons. "Okay then..." the apparent teacher motioned for the disciples to rise. Kurama shot Yukina a glance, signaling her to back away and she followed unquestioningly. The band of youkai leapt from their former statue like state and attacked.  
  
Hiei took a step back and placed his hand on the hilt of the ever present sword. His body disappeared in the normal flash of speed he was known for, and the first demon that came within ten feet of him had made the biggest mistake of it's life. Hiei's sword glimmered with newly spilt blood, and the pathetic attacker lay lifeless on the ground. He homed in on another heading towards his undefended sister, letting it's body fall to the ground one piece at a time. Yukina flinched at the gruesome sight.  
  
"Your supposed to be protecting her fool!" Hiei scolded Kuwabara, who was standing significantly far away, trying to fend off some of the more skilled fighters assaulting them.  
  
"If you didn't notice I'm a bit preoccupied here!" the orange headed boy replied absent mindedly.  
  
"It's okay, Hiei, I'm fine. You don't need to worry," Yukina tried to end the quarreling between him and Kuwabara. Hiei shot another glare at his most hated ningen and darted off to put an end to the pointless battle.  
  
Kurama and Yusuke were also having few problems with their opponents, though not as easy of a time as Hiei. Hiei's speed gave him the upper hand to all of the learning demons. Sensing that his students were going to decimated the leader fled, taking a door near left corner of the huge warehouse. Killing his third victim Hiei went after him, determined not to let one of them escape. Alive at least.  
  
"Well isn't he gracious, leaving us with the gangs and getting to go off on his own and take care of one without having to worry about who's going to stab you in the back next!?" Yusuke complained, getting more and more agitated when another demon tried to attack him from behind.  
  
"They're just novices, Yusuke, you know your not having any problems with them but keeping your distance," Kurama said, lashing his whip out at another student. They had already depleted half of the force against them. Kuwabara had five going at him at once however, and waving the sword around wasn't the best strategy. Once he had his attention on one another would come to attack him.  
  
"I'm glad your all having fun!" Kuwabara yelled from the other side of the area. Kurama slashed through the last of his adversaries and started to go over to help Kuwabara while Yusuke aimed for the last one on their side of the room. When all three of the fighters were cornering the remaining demons, Kurama and Yusuke sensed something. Two more demons came out of the shadows swiftly, each heading for the entrance.  
  
"What are they scared?" Yusuke mocked, launching another small bullet at someone going behind Kuwabara. The fox was far more hesitant though to be confident.  
  
"Yukina move!" Kurama yelled, realizing what was happening. They weren't going for the door. Just the helpless girl standing feet away from it. Koenma was already on the other side of the room, watching Hiei's battle from the door they had gone through, Botan was sitting in the air on her oar, Yukina was the only one left. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Hiei heard a muffled warning from the other room, barely making out the syllables of his sister's name. He shot his last flame at the demon desperately trying to get away, already fatally wounded. Hiei was merely speeding up the painful process. His crimson eyes shot to the door Koenma was standing next to, staring at the adjacent room. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Yukina!" Kuwabara shouted. His eyes were welling with tears. He ran from the demons he was supposed to be facing and slashed through one from behind. Kurama finished off the ones Kuwabara left behind, and joined Yusuke next to their friend. "Yukina..." Kuwabara couldn't hold back his emotions at her sight. His love. Motionless on the ground. Ruby liquid dripping from her chest, her heart. Kuwabara was shaking. Hard. His motivation, his beloved, was gone. Yusuke put his hand on the devastated boy's shoulder, and Kurama whispered a small prayer for her. After his undertone stopped the only sound left filling the room was Kuwabara's sobs and Hiei's almost inaudible steps.  
  
"What..." he started. His steps stopped dead when he saw past Kurama. "Yu..." He looked to Kurama, whom turned his head. Hiei knelt down next to his sister and shut her gentle crimson eyes, so much like his own. Yusuke thought he saw a single drop of moisture hit the ground when Hiei brought his hand away. The person Hiei held in highest regard, the most important thing to him in any world...had just been extinguished. He clenched his fist and felt his nails digging into his skin. "Where....were you?" Hiei said, sorrow and anger filling his voice. It was painfully obvious he was trying not to explode.  
  
"I...we didn't know...I didn't see..." Kuwabara choked.  
  
"You promised...how could I have trusted you? How could I have left her in your incapable hands? I believed you...this one time I actually held you to your word...and this is the one time when I shouldn't have?!" Hiei started to lose his temper.  
  
"Hiei calm down," Kurama tried to contain him.  
  
"You try to calm down! She wasn't your sister! How would you feel if you left your mother in this fool's hands and he let her die?! How Kurama?!"  
  
"I didn't. I couldn't help it," Kuwabara stood up, still quivering.  
  
"Your excuses aren't good enough this time you idiot!" The white band around his forehead burned back quickly, his Jagan flaring wildly underneath. Hiei's sorrow turned to anger quickly, and all his former hatred for Kuwabara multiplied greatly. "Your sorry?! She's gone now! It doesn't matter any more, YOU LET HER DIE!!"  
  
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I couldn't go long with out having a YYH fic in the works ^^; I started this chapter awhile ago, but put it off until Haunting Dreams was done. I'm sorry to all the Yukina fans! Her death was the only thing I could think of that would get Hiei to act the way I wanted and keep him remotely in character! Don't say Kurama to me cause I don't support them as yaoi. I think it got kinda cliche in some parts even though I tried to avoid that. The beginning (just the part before it says "earlier blah blah") hooks onto the end of this chap. Weird way to do it, but I liked it better for some reason. Please review and tell me what you think! 


	2. Least Deserving

Togashi is lucky, he owns Yu Yu Hakusho. I do not.  
  
And underscores are italics. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Go."  
  
"Hiei," Kurama pleaded.  
  
"Leave me alone."  
  
"Hiei," the angry youkai let his aura appear around him, warning the concerned fox not to push his temper any farther. Kurama walked away defeated.  
  
"Still not letting anyone get near him?" Yusuke asked when Kurama walked into the next room. They had brought everyone back to Yusuke's house after they finally managed to get Hiei to stop trying to murder Kuwabara.  
  
"Not even ten feet," he replied dejectedly, "How's Kuwabara doing?"  
  
"Still sobbing to Botan, I don't think he's going to get over this for awhile," Yusuke answered, "What're we going to do about Hiei?"  
  
"He'll work through it on his own, someway. I doubt Kuwabara will survive another encounter with him anytime soon though. Have you told Keiko or Shizuru yet?"  
  
"I called them to come over, Shizuru has to drag him back to their house sooner or later. I dunno how I'll break it to Keiko, she and Yukina were pretty close," Yusuke explained, turning his head to the door as if Keiko had just walked through and caught them talking about her. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
_Why did I have to leave. Why did I trust him. I promised to always protect you and I failed you. I can't believe I trusted him. That stupid idiotic ningen you cared for, hell that's the only reason I trusted you with him. Because you liked him. I wanted to kill his sorry ass. Now he has a reason for death._ Hiei thought miserably in his mind. _It's all my fault. If I hadn't left you there under his incompetent care then you'd still be alive. You'd be just fine. Smiling and laughing with the rest of those fools._ He was sitting on Yusuke's desk with his hands crossed, head down. The junk that had once been on the cedar desk was strewn across the room, another victim of Hiei's fury. He clenched his fist again at the thought of how the horrendous ordeal could have been avoided and his reiki flamed around him. A single tear, identical to the one that he had shed when he first witnessed his precious sister's body, fell from his face and faded invisibly in the dark fabric of his clothing.  
  
"Dammit..." Hiei said through his gritted teeth. He swung his arm around his side, sending Yusuke's black lamp careening into the wall and left a sizable gash in the wall. "What the hell, Hiei?" Yusuke yelled when he saw the dent in the wall next to the door. Kurama walked in the door on his heels, watching the fire demons reactions. He didn't have much to observe.  
  
"Hn..." Hiei replied. It lacked it's normal air of disregard and merely sounded as if he were just trying to humor Yusuke with a response, no matter how small.  
  
"Look, I know your pissed, hell I am too. But your not the only one here who's upset, okay? Kuwa-"  
  
"You think I care about that stupid bastard?"  
  
"As I was saying, Kuwabara is over there crying is damn eyes out with Botan, your in here tearing apart my room - yeah, I see all my crap on the floor too - and we're the only two here not in a rage or depression or any other crap, and soon we'll have Keiko and Shizuru to worry about! So lay off my wall, and all the other crap I own," Yusuke finished his rant. Hiei didn't move, or even make a sound. "Hey, black boy, you home? Or should we take you to a shrink?" the angered teen received one of many patented death glares from Hiei, who was fed up with being lectured about his temper and behavior. He slid off the desk and opened the balcony window without turning again, and jumped out of view in one fast, fluid motion. Yusuke sighed and turned to leave.  
  
"I don't know what we're going to do with him," Yusuke sighed to Kurama on his way past.  
  
"Just wait it out is all we can, I doubt he'd let us do anything else," the Fox answered. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"You...your kidding right? Yusuke, please, you can't be, this is a sick joke," Keiko stuttered, almost unable to utter the words. Yusuke turned away. "No...no, she, Yusuke..."  
  
"I'm sorry Keiko, we realized where they were going too late...I'm sorry," Yusuke answered her solemnly. Keiko gaped at him in disbelief. It couldn't be true, not for her, Yukina was one of her closest friends. She wasn't dead, she couldn't be.  
  
"Yusuke..." Keiko's eyes were wide. So many emotions were going through her. Hate, sorrow, anger, pain, confusion, she couldn't sort through it. It was too much, too much flooding her mind at once. She slowly sat down on the sofa, letting her head fall into her hands leaning on her knees. "Yukina...why? Why did she have to die?! It's...it's not fair...it's not fair..." Keiko's vision of Yusuke's carpet blurred and she felt her warm tears beginning to stream down her face. Yusuke stepped around the clear glass coffee table and sat next to her.  
  
"It's...It'll be okay," Yusuke tried to comfort her futilely. He put his arm around her and she leaned into his chest, sobbing. He could feel his shirt beginning to absorb her tears. Keiko's breaths were quivering, and her mind believed that her tears would never stop raining down.  
  
"I'm going to check on Shizuru...Botan was going to try to tell her," Kurama said in a hushed voice, staring down sympathetically at Keiko.  
  
"Yeah," Yusuke answered, not looking away from Keiko. "But she probably couldn't get far."  
  
"I wouldn't contradict that," Kurama answered, "Keiko...I'm sorry, please...just know we're here." She barely nodded, her head still pressed firmly against her boyfriend. Kurama paced solemnly to the other room, not allowing his emerald eyes to leave the couple until he was through the door.  
  
"Come on Botan, what's wrong? I've never seen you so hysterical, not to mention my baby of a brother over there," Shizuru's voice echoed through Kurama's ears in it's typical tone. Evidently Botan had broken down before the news could've been relayed. Botan's head was buried in her knees next to Atsuko's cerulean bed Shizuru was on. "Kurama, what the hell is wrong with them? All Botan could mutter was 'she' and then burst into tears, and he's like a rag doll," Shizuru motioned her head to Kuwabara, sitting in a withered lump against the white wall.  
  
"Shizuru..." Kurama struggled for words to tell her. He didn't want to inform her the way Yusuke did for Keiko, blurting it out quickly and swamp her head too fast. He couldn't stand to see another person fall apart in so little time. "You knew that Yukina went with us last time we left right?"  
  
"Yeah..."  
  
"She was cornered and we didn't think they were darting toward her -"he started slowly, trying to ease into it, but was cut off early.  
  
"Okay, so? What does that have...to..." Shizuru froze mid sentence, her mind realizing one thing about the gentle ice spirit that could pain her friends so greatly. "Kurama, where's Yukina?" An air of urgency filled her voice, and a severe want to avoid the answer she had thought of.  
  
"She didn't come back..."  
  
"She...Yukina? Why would anyone want to kill her? She never did anything! Why weren't you all protecting her!" Shizuru raved. Instantly she bolted up and clasped Kurama's shirt tightly in her fists.  
  
"Shizuru we're - "  
  
"Sorry? Sorry isn't good enough! Excuses won't bring her back now will they?!" Shizuru stormed at Kurama. He could see the crystalline tears falling from her pale face, drained of it's color when she heard the tragedy, though her hair was covering it. Suddenly, her grip on his collar loosened, then her arms swung to her sides limply and she stumbled backwards onto the sofa. "Yukina...your such an idiot...around Kuwabara too long..." her head plummeted to her hands and Kurama could clearly hear the sound of her sniffling begin to mix with Botan and Kuwabara's. Kurama observed them silently for some time, then retreated back to Yusuke's room once again.  
  
The white curtains over the balcony door blew freely in the mid day's wind, their thin material revealing a black silhouette. Kurama could instinctively recognize the energy of his best friend. He walked behind him slowly, and stared out at the city scape visible from the room. Hiei's arms were hanging at his sides, eyes surveying the horizon absent mindedly, his signature black jacket swaying with the cold gusts. "Why her?" were the words that managed to escape his lips. His tone was no longer arrogant as it always had been. It no longer held any life.  
  
"We have no way of knowing as of now, Hiei," the Fox replied in the same soft, comforting tone he tried to convey to the other mourners.  
  
"There was a reason. She hadn't made a sound the entire time, except for asking me to stop bickering with that idiot. The other demons were occupied with you and the other two. The demons that," Hiei paused, "they had a reason. They hid in the darkness of the rafters until they were positive we were off guard. Kurama, doesn't that seem to have more then coincidence behind it? Why didn't they attack someone who was worth the effort?" Kurama thought about Hiei's reasoning. It made chilling sense. A surprise attack on the one who wasn't fighting? It was a kamikaze mission at best. If they were planning on killing her then they would have known they're fates were sealed for death. Why not assault one of the fighters? Were they just trying to damage them in anyway they could since the team was obviously too powerful? Kurama's logic knew those were reasonable questions, but the part of him that was lost with Yukina only wished that they were looking too far into matters. And he knew that the pain her death had caused him was minute compared to Hiei's.  
  
"Hiei...don't look too deeply at it yet. Though your point is sensible..." Kurama answered hesitantly, not eager to arouse Hiei's suspicions. He glanced at the fire youkai for a moment then back at the intense blue seeping over the city, thin clouds floating across the sky like smoke.  
  
Hiei's left hand was now tightly clenched. "She...was the last one to deserve that..." he said almost inaudibly. Kurama nodded sadly, then followed Hiei's black flashes until they were out of distance yet again. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Finally updated! Hope anyone who read that chapter enjoyed it. Big difference from the first chapter. Shizuru was hard for me to write about since I don't know her character as well as the others...and very sorry for not updating in awhile again, I normally don't update my fics really often because I rarely plan out everything from the beginning. Actually...pretty much never. If I remember an idea next time I feel like writing then I use it, and if I forget it I think it's better off since it wasn't good enough for me to really remember. So yeah...that's how I work and why my updates are slow. I outlined this roughly a while ago though, so I know what I want to happen, I just need to work out writing it and the details of it. Hopefully I can get another update up soon! And before you leave please review! 


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